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Home Schooling in the United States
by Randall F. Matheny
Home schooling is becoming more popular in the United States every day
and is legal in every state, although laws regulating it vary widely.
Seldom a week goes by that the successes of home schooling are not lauded
in one form of media or another. It is true that home schooling continues
to be criticized from some quarters, but the obvious successes far overshadow
the criticisms.
Home schooling has always been a part of our national
heritage. As a matter of fact, the southern colonies patterned their
approach to education after Anglicanism with education choices centered
in families which chose to educate their children in tuition schools or
tutor them at home. Poor children had little or no education.
Puritanism of New England encouraged the establishment of elementary schools
in every township and secondary education was established with Latin grammar
schools in larger towns. Harvard College was established in 1636
and, like most of the older, esteemed institutions of higher learning in
the United States, began as a religious effort. There was much cooperation
between church and state in bringing schools into existence, and incidentally,
this continued to be done after the founding of the nation without violating
Article One of the Bill of Rights! Churches should be thanked for
the role they have historically played in advancing the cause of education,
both public and at home. The middle colonies exhibited more diversity
of religious groups, consequently, each group provided what education it
could and there was no impetus by state or local governments. The
spread of public schooling in the eighteenth century gradually began to
replace other means of education, but home education and church affiliated
education continued to survive and fill needs. Home based education
thrives today for a multitude of reasons.
Home schooling families in the United States are
as diverse as the population of the country. Recent studies, including
federal surveys, have shown that home schooling is relatively evenly spread
among income and educational groups. Religion does play a major role
in some families' decisions to home school, but for a growing segment of
the home schooling population it does not. Some parents have chosen
home schooling because they believe that they are better equipped, prepared
and motivated to teach their own children than public school teachers.
Other parents choose home schooling because they desire to protect their
children from crime, drugs, and sexual immorality, that has become all
too common as evidenced by daily news reports and personal experience.
Still others choose home schooling for religious reasons, believing that
God has given the responsibility to parents to educate their children.
And some have chosen home schooling as a last resort because public schooling
has failed to fulfill its commitment to their children. In reality,
most home school families have chosen their course for more than one reason,
and that, sometimes after years of consideration.
Children who are schooled at home continue to excel
in national competitions in many disciplines, proving the excellence of
home based education. Colleges and universities which once viewed
home schooled students with skepticism now actively recruit them.
Home schooling is an asset to those who seek higher education, and is definitely
not a hindrance. Home schooled children are generally viewed as better
able to relate to adults, less likely to engage in risky activities that
are common to their age group in public education, more mature for their
age, more appreciative of education in general, and more likely to finish
a course of education at the upper levels. Home schooled children
in general have exhibited no difficulties in adapting to academic life
in colleges or universities.
There are home schooling groups in many communities
which offer information, support, encouragement, and opportunities for
group activities. Some groups are large enough to provide organized
sports, and those which are not may avail themselves of community based
sports activities. Home schooled children are not deprived of opportunities
to interact with other children. To the contrary, there are oftentimes
more opportunities for interaction provided by the home school community
than can be enjoyed by the individual family. Home schooled children
are not "overprotected from the realities of life to the extent that they
cannot cope with them when they are confronted with them." Again,
to the contrary, the loving home context enables many them to deal with
"the (so called) realities of life" on a much more mature level.
Home schooling puts loving parents in charge of instilling a system of
values that is lacking (sometimes by decree) in public schooling.
Home schooling, by philosophy, experience and proven product, is demanding
of respect and deserving of recognition.
Check back from time to time for updated data.
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